In 2018, we developed a list of the top 10 advantages of cloud computing and shared references from the business world that backed up and reinforced those advantages. 

Aspects of that list were revisited and updated today in light of the new normal brought on by the world health and economic crises. What are the advantages of cloud computing in the new circumstances? Here are the top 10 reasons why moving to the cloud should be your top priority right away.

1. Operate anywhere

One of the most compelling and frequently mentioned advantages of cloud computing is the ability for staff to access essential business apps from any location. The key driver behind cloud adoption is the ability to access data from anywhere.

2. Reduced costs

SaaS applications' lower costs are frequently cited as a key advantage over on-premise deployments. In fact, in our 2018 article, the number one reason businesses chose to utilise the cloud was to reduce costs. These cost savings are the result of various things.

3. Scale easily by configuring resources as needed.

Operational agility is the top factor cited by CIOs and IT directors as a reason for adopting the cloud, and it makes sense given that flexibility and agility may provide businesses a real advantage over their competitors. When we use the terms 'flexibility' and 'agile,' we mean the capacity to quickly and efficiently adjust to changes in the market and the external environment.

4. Increased cooperation

Collaboration reaches new heights when teams can effortlessly view, edit, and share documents in real time. This kind of collaboration is made possible by the cloud, which provides complete visibility into the collaborative process and makes papers accessible from anywhere, at any time.

5. Enhanced protection

Executives were reluctant to trust others with their data because of security worries, which slowed down early cloud adoption. The Research Vice President of Gartner, Jay Heiser, claims that many of these concerns are unfounded. He advises CIOs to switch their line of inquiry from 'Is the cloud secure?' to 'Am I using the cloud securely?'

6. A very basic IT infrastructure

With no effort on their part, customers can virtually access computational and storage resources thanks to cloud computing. The costs of managing servers and storage might be decreased or even completely eliminated for businesses. 

Additionally, because there is no on-premise infrastructure, there are no related operational expenditures for power, cooling, and maintaining the hardware and software. As a result, businesses will probably need fewer (if any) full-time IT employees and may concentrate their resources on achieving their primary objectives.

7. Constantly current

Do you recall the significant Equifax data breach from 2017? Up to 143 million Americans were compromised, and their Social Security numbers, birth dates, and residential addresses were made public. A known weakness allowed the hackers to gain access to the data held by the credit reporting organisation. 

Even though a cure for this security flaw was accessible two months before to the incident, the corporation neglected to update its software. Because they frequently contain crucial patches to security problems, software updates are significant. Updates are often generated automatically when software is hosted in the cloud, ensuring that users always have the most recent version available.

8. Backup and recovery from disaster

Organisations can simplify their operations and provide flexible, quick, and affordable functionality by using cloud-based backup and disaster recovery solutions. The ability to easily transfer applications, operating systems, patches, and data from one data place to another without having to reload the entire server thanks to virtual servers' independence from hardware makes recovery times faster and has less of an impact on your company's operations.

9. Affordable, predictable price

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications that are hosted in the cloud are often offered as subscriptions, with the number of users and/or requested features affecting the monthly subscription charge that businesses must pay.

10. Controlling access to documents

Tight document management and simple, anywhere access are becoming more and more important as the need for business user communication grows. With the appropriate security privileges, anyone may access, view, share, and change content thanks to cloud-based document access and control systems. Some of the well-known brands in this industry include Dropbox, Google, and Adobe, and each of them has products. The capacity to save, link, and distribute documents that are related to application records is offered by many cloud-based applications, though.